Naniwa vs. Thorzain

TSL3 had a lot of memorable moments. Huge upsets, great strategies, but by far my favorite moment is captured in the video below.

The Irony of July

ST_July staring off into space wondering if he's going to get ironically knocked out in the first round of the GSL July. For those who don't know July's wins in Brood War all came in July and so he's probably the hungriest of all players this season for a win.

In truth this image comes from Team Liquid's twitter page and is July watching Idra and MC play at Summer Dreamhack 2011.

The Maestro

On the advice of my brother I bought The Starcraft Bible by Patrick Howell O'Neil, which gives alot of good background on how Starcraft the game in it's 3 incarnations has become such a huge global success.

One of the great things about the book is that it gives some history on some of the great players of Brood War.

One player who received alot of coverage is Savior, also known as Maestro for his reign as the greatest Starcraft player in the world a few years back. His career was forever tarnished however, when he and several other players were convicted of match-fixing.

On TeamLiquid.net, there is a great, very incisive and indepth story on what made Savior such an incredible player. Although I don't like or appreciate Starcraft or Brood War very much, it is still very inspiring to see someone analyze the moments and strategies of a player to such a level.

If you want to know more, check it out here: God of the Battlefield Part 1

BM

FROM THE NASL
Controversy, Manners, and How North American E-Sports Distinguishes Itself
by Brandon Garrett
5/20/11

Let me take a moment to say that I am an Idra fan, so that any perceived bias towards him throughout this article is probably totally there.  In light of Idra's comments about Cruncher in recent history (TSL3, Team Liquid Forums, NASL Thursday Night)  it is clear they are rivals in some way.  Obviously Idra would never say they are rivals in terms of skill, but merely that he dislikes Cruncher and the feeling is mutual.  Incontrol made an astute observation Thursday night, albeit masked in 16th century rhetoric, that it is absurd to think players do not let their emotions become involved in playing the game competitively.  There is not just a lot of money riding on tournament play but a player's reputation as well, so it is reasonable and expected for them to take it seriously.

To ask for some level of courtesy and conduct is certainly something everyone expects, especially in light of a more publicized E-Sports environment. A player's conduct is certainly more policed now that it was before simply due to the transparent nature of the internet and the large number of viewers looking for anything to tweet of make a reddit post about.   Nonetheless, we as a community should not discourage rivalries, even if they are rather unfriendly.  Rivalries between sports teams are what make matches more interesting than they otherwise would have been, especially when they are unfriendly.  If you stop to think about any other professional sport there are certainly vulgar displays of emotion on a regular basis.  One only needs to read a football or basketball coaches lips to see a stream of explicit commentary not regularly heard on a primetime network.

The debate about manners and conduct has been going on for a while now and Idra seems to be the center of controversy every time it sparks back up.  While many people like him specifically for his openness about his feelings, it is certainly viewed by others as unprofessional and bad for the community's perception from the outside world.  From the perspective of those who knew nothing about brood war, I have found that the fascination of the community regarding "manners" is pretty much completely bewildering.  Many  people who are just coming in the game tell me that they do not understand why players are so nice to each other.

Certainly most members of the Starcraft community are friendly towards each other and no one is saying that this is a bad thing.  North American E-sports was around before Starcraft II, with WoW, Counterstrike, and Halo being extremely popular outside of Korea.  Not only does this show that the E-sports community can separate itself from Korea, but that an infrastructure existed before North American Starcraft II tournaments began to blossom.  People were rivalrous and controversial before the idea of professional manners became widespread in the North American scene.  This is largely due to the influence of Korean tournaments and styles.  No one is going to argue that the quality of players in Korea is not something we should emulate, but obviously we are culturally different.  Where BM is a notably large offense in Korea, it is not nearly the same in the U.S.  From the GSL rulebook- "There should be no communication between the players other than ‘GG’, ‘gg’, ‘ㅎㅎ’,'ㅈㅈ' and etc to surrender the game."  I don't think anyone would argue that that is the authoritative way to create good levels of play, but nonetheless it is an integral part of the dynamic of the GSL.

To conclude, controversy is fun!  None of us spectators are directly affected by it, and it seems that every time something dramatic happens the community jumps all over it.  Are we really the community that is so sensitive everything Idra tweets needs a 300 comment thread on reddit?  I don't think anyone wants to hear much more about the Idra- Team Liquid controversy either. As a community we should embrace and encourage rivalries by taking sides, not by condemning players teams or organizations.  No one who plays a video game like Starcraft competitively is going to escalate a rivalry (internet tuff guy) to anything beyond words so what do we have to be afraid of?

SC: BW

I'm going to take the advice of my brother and order the book he recommended in a post below, The Starcraft Bible.

Part of the reason why I want to get this is because I know very little about the first version of Starcraft and its expansion, which has been around for a decade. When I watch the games, I sometimes can't tell what's going on (especially when the commentators are speaking in Korean), because while some units are the same, some are very different. The mere look of Starcraft sometimes makes my eyes hurt compared to the graphics of Starcraft 2.

I've been trying to learn more about Starcraft in hopes of gaining more understanding of it as a cultural phenomenon and also so I can enjoy and appreciate the legacies or narratives that follow some players. Nada is supposed to be one of the most consistent SC progamers. Players such as Jaedong and July in their own ways revolutionized the way to play Zerg. Some players who were on the B team for SC1 are in Code S and dominating in SC2. When I first heard the theme song written for Tasteless there were several references to players and matchups in SC1, and I didn't get them so I had to ask my brother what they were all about.

In hopes of getting caught up and also familiar with the basic mechanics of SC1, I've started to watch more and more games, starting with this list of "most unusual progames" that I came across on TeamLiquid.net.